…Hosted By School’s Advisory Board Chair, Ndoma-Egba
A 12-year-old Year 7 – JSS1 – student of Start-Rite International School Abuja, Chukwuduben Amasiani, had a quite impressive outing at the just concluded 2023 NNPC-SNEPCo Junior Invitational Tennis Championship, where he grabbed the two titles at stake in the tournament for Boys and Girls Under-12s and Under-14s, held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Amasiani, the young talented promising tennis player picked the titles for Boys Under-12s and Boys Under-14s categories in the championship, organised by the International Tennis Academy, ITA.
Speaking in an interview after receiving the young Amasiani upon his return from the national competition, where he did the school proud, the chairman of the Advisory Board of Start-Rite, which celebrated its 15 years of existence last weekend, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, described the young lad’s achievement as remarkable and outstanding.
According to him, “It is a very remarkable and outstanding achievement. And like I said when I was welcoming our new icon. I said we hope that he will succeed Nduka Odizor, the Nigerian tennis legend, who was called The Duke and the very first Nigerian to play in a grandslam and the very first Nigerian and the last Nigerian to play in the Wimbledon centre court.
“So, for us in Start-Rite School, we are very elated because we see the values imbued by the founder of the school, Mrs Amaka Ndoma-Egba, still at work, creating an environment where the students can express their endowments and their talents, and can combine academics with other gifts and progress in all of them at the same time.
“It confirms that we are in the right direction, but we are not going to rest on our oars. We are going to do more to improve the expression of our children in every way – in academics, sports, debates, science, technology and mathematics, robotics, artificial intelligence and in everything, we want to be on top of our game.”
Ndoma-Egba, an avid lawn tennis player, urged the government to focus attention on the development of sports in the country.
He said, “Let me also use this opportunity to say that the government both at the federal and state levels must be more deliberate in sports development. In our time, we had all sorts of competitions – inter-house, inter-schools. All sorts of state and federal competitions. I remember a classmate of mine, who took part in the 1973 Commonwealth Games in Australia, one Johnson Ogbeche, he died quite young from cancer as an army lieutenant. But that was because sports was encouraged. You had sports officers in every local government, who went out identifying and picking out talents and nurturing them. Some of them played in the academicals, some of them played in Rovers.
“So, government must be more deliberate in sports development. And it is not all about soccer. There are also other sports that have gained the attention of the world, and lawn tennis is one of them.
“And on a personal note, for me as an avid lawn tennis player, I appreciate the significance of the achievement of this young man. I recognise his potential. And I recognise the possibilities that are before him.”
